The Calcutta High Court held that a husband’s pressure on his wife to bring her share of ancestral property may amount to a dowry demand under Section 304B IPC. The Court upheld his conviction, reduced the sentence to ten years, and acquitted the parents-in-law.
The Supreme Court refused to interfere with convictions in a Chhattisgarh dowry death case, strongly criticising dowry harassment and humiliation of brides, while Justice BV Nagarathna emphasised that courts must send a strong societal message against financial coercion and mistreatment in matrimonial homes.
